Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day. This time we will have a look at the meaning of
angehen
Radio is a visual medium… uh… I mean a visual large. Wait… I mean acoustic medium.
So Steve, the producer of this radio here, and it totally is a radio show, has been to a seminar in Canada over the weekend called “Holy shit – holistic learning”. And besides 967 pictures which we all had to look at during the daily meeting he brought back some new ideas. He thinks, since we’re on the radio here, it would be great to rely a little less on just explaining and work with a acoustical impressions a little more instead… well… he’s the boss so here we go.
Here’s our first sound.
“paeaeaeaehhhhhhhhhhhh”
Did you recognize it?
Exactly… that was the Apple start up sound.
“pluh plooo pla plimmm hhhhhhhhhh”
And that was Windows, an old version, anyway.
And what does this have does that have to do with angehen? Well, let’s look at this. angehen consists of the parts an and gehen. Depening on context an can translate to on, at, for and to. But in essence it stands for 2 ideas… and one of that is on in sense of running.
- Ich mache mein Radio an.
- I turn on my radio.
Gehen means to go. Both verbs are used for many things but the German one is a little more shifted toward the idea of functioning/working.
- “Könnten wir uns vielleicht in dem Café bei mir treffen?”
“Ja, das geht.” - “Would it be possible to meet at the cafe close to my place?”
“Yeah, that works“
- Mein Handy geht nicht.
- My phone isn’t working.
Ad together with the on-an we get the first meaning of angehen… to come/turn on for …well… devices of any kind.
- Mein Handy geht nicht an.
- My cell phone won’t come on.
- Auf dem Hof ist ein Bewegungsmelder, das Licht geht also automatisch an.
- There is a motion detector on the yard so the light turns on automatically.
- DER Geburtstagsscherz: magische Kerzen. Du kannst sie ausblasen soviel du willst, sie gehen immer wieder an.
- THE birthday prank: magic candles. You can blow them out all you want, they always come back on.
Now what’s important to remember is that angehen is ONLY what the thing itself does. Not what you do. So it is not always a translation for to turn on. When you push the light switch then you do turn on the light… but you do NOT angehen the light. What you do is anmachen the light and then the light can either angehen or not. It’s a free country.
- Ich gehe den Fernseher an… WRONG.
The opposite of angehen is ausgehen by the way.
All right.
Now, I said that an stands for two concepts and the meaning we just had was using the on/off-idea.
But of course there is also angehen with the other an. The local one.
And there are actually three distinct meanings Here they are in English in context…
- “How good a kisser are you?”
“None of your business.”
“Sadly.”
- “What was that look?!”
“Sir?”
“Oh you know what I mean…don’t you EVER look at me like that again just because I take decaff, you hear me young man?!!”
“Sorry Sir?”
- “Quite a project.”
“Let’s do this man, today’s the day.”
Hard to believe, but all these will be translated with angehen. Crazy right?
The first one was to concern, the second one was to snap at someone and the third was to tackle, to start working. They do look all pretty different but at the very core they all share the idea of going towards or going at.
Let’s say, we have a problem or a project. It stands there like a huge block. And what do we do to deal with it? We go towards it. We go at it. We approach it.
- Wir gehen das Problem an.
- We approach/ start solving/dealing with the problem.
Pretty straight forward, I think. There is also a variation of this…
- Die Stadt geht gegen die Drogendealer im Park an.
- The community is going up against/taking measures against the drug dealers in the park.
The gegen just makes it more confrontational, but the underlying idea is the same… the going at something.
And it works the same for the second meaning… the snapping at someone. It is basically a going towards someone…. just a sudden, angry and possibly violent one.
- “Maria ist heut’ irgendwie komisch drauf.”
“Oh ja… als ich mich vorhin beim Essen zu ihr gesetzt hab’, um ein bisschen Small Talk zu machen, ist sie mich angegangen, von wegen, dass ich sie doch in Ruhe lassen soll mit diesem banalen Gequatsche und so…”
“Vielleicht wieder irgendwelche Thomas-Probleme” - “Maria is being weird today.”
“Oh yes… when I sat down next to her during lunch to do a little small talk she totally snapped at me like I should leave her alone with all that trivial gab and so …
“Maybe she has Thomas-issues again.”
This usage is kind of rare though.
The one meaning of angehen that is most important is to concern… in sense of to be someones business.
Now how do we get from the idea of going at or toward to to concern? Well… An information that is not my business does not go my way… in an abstract sense. Like…
- “How much do you earn a month”…
“That information does not go to you.”
And this is really not that far away from
- That is not your business.
This concern-angehen is super hyper mega turbo warp common not only because you can use it to reject inappropriate questions.
- “Have you done your homework?”
“That’s non of your business.”
“Well, I am your mother so it actually IS my business.” - “Hast du dein Hausaufgaben gemacht?”
“Das geht dich nichts an.”
“Nun, ich bin deine Mutter und deshalb geht mich das SEHR WOHL was an.
What is a little weird is that we use nichts and (et)was instead of just not. So we say…
- Etwas geht mich nichts/was an.
- Something goes me nothing /something on.
That doesn’t really make sense on a logical level so we’ll have to use the Zen of the Student and just say “Okay. I accept.” (I feel like I keep quoting you, Mike :)
Now, there is another really really important usage of this angehen…
- “Wie war euer Urlaub.”
“Was das Wetter angeht super, aber der Strand war echt zu voll.” - “How was your vacation.”
“As far as the weather is concerned it was great, but the beach was definitely too crowded.”
This phrasing is super common an people use that a lot
- Was … angeht….
- As far as …. is concerned…
Just insert whatever thing or person you want there… what?… oh .. right.. the cases. It is accusative. Because of … reasons. Reasons we must not worry about. Reasons I am too lazy to think about.
- Was die genauen Gründe für Akkusativ angeht, bin ich total zufrieden mit meiner Unwissenheit.
- As far as the exact reasons for the accusative are concerned I am totally content with my nescience.
We should mention that angehen is much more limited than to concern. For one thing it is not t concern in sense of worries. But what’s even more important because it is more confusing is the fact that it isn’t even always the business-concern. Often, the word you need is betreffen.
- To whom it may concern.
- An alle, die es betrifft.
Angehen and betreffen are rarely interchangeable, because although the meanings do overlap the usage patterns are quite fixed. You couldn’t really say
- An alle, die es angeht.
but I can’t give you a reason why other than: because we use betreffen. As far as meaning goes, betreffen is shifted toward having to do with or having an effect on. Some classified information can very well betreffen … so it can be about you. But it probably doesn’t angehen you… it is classified after all.
Or take you neighbor. Generally, it doesn’t angehen you what he does but if he’s drilling at night that probably betreffen you because it wakes you up.
I think angehen really works best in context information, of questions asked.
Now… there is one more meaning of angehen actually that doesn’t really fit in with the others.
- Es geht nicht an, das du nie Staub saugst.
- I is not acceptable, that you never vacuum.
I think it is kind of a combination of the work-idea of gehen and the arriving idea of an (at). But it is not that important because this meaning is kind of rare too, at least was spoken German angeht. And it only exists in the negative.
- It is acceptable that you don’t vacuum sometimes.
- Es geht an, dass du mal nicht Staub saugst.
This doesn’t make sense in German and people would probably not even know what you’re trying to say. So take “es geht nicht an” and “es kann nicht angehen” as sort of fixed phrases and store them in the rare meaning pile.
Speaking of fixed phrasings… there is another one
- Wir lassen es langsam angehen.
- We take it slow.
The English translation sounds like it would be the approach a problem angehen. In German it sounds more like the on/off-one.
- We let it come on slowly.(lit.)
But of course you can pick whatever explanation works best for you.
All right. I think we’re done for today. What? Ongoing? Oh ongoing looks like angehen but it has nothing to do with it because the German an does not have the idea of onward in it. It just has on/off or at/to/toward. Ongoing could be laufend or anhaltend… which by the way is something you can tell people to scare them.
- In German, laufend and anhaltend can both mean ongoing.
A quick look into the dictionary and of they go to Spanish class.
So… this was our German Word of the Day angehen. The 2 meanings that are the ones to remember are to come on for devices and to concern in sense of to be someones business. The 2 less important meanings were to approach (a problem) and to snap( at someone). Sounds like a very random selection of meanings at first but they can all be explained by the 2 basic ideas of an … the idea of on/off and the local idea of to/toward.
Here’s one last example that combines them all… can you understand it? :)
Was den angehenden (soon to be/emerging) Präsidenten angeht, so hoffe ich, dass er die Dinge, die in unserem Land nicht angehen, schnell und konsequent angeht, auch wenn ihn seine Gegner und die Presse dafür scharf angehen.
Nice, right?
If you have any questions about this or the article in general just leave me a comment. And if you want, you can test yourself with the little quiz we have prepared.
I hope you liked it and see you next time.
Hallo –
I was struggling with how to translate “angehen” is this sentence:
Weil nach einem Erfolgserlebnis gehen sich die größeren Ziele gleich viel motivierter an.
Because after a sense of achievement, the bigger goals start motivating themselves – sort of like spurring themselves to greater heights?
Danke…
Great question!!
This is actually a special use of the reflexive. It basically means “one can do XYY”
It’s a way to take out the actual person and make it sound impersonal.
So your example means
Note that it’s NOT specific to “angehen”, but works with plenty of verbs.
It’s quite a common phrasing in magazine style writing, because it sounds upbeat… not sure why.
Hi Emanuel-
I am fairly new to German. Not sure I get this connotation of “gehen”
Der Verkauf im Kiosk geht nur über Bargeld.
Does it mean “goes by way of”? Maybe like “goes in this direction-geht in diese Richtung”.
gracias!
One of the meanings of “gehen” in German is “to function, to work” in the sense of “working out”. That’s what we’re seeing in the example.
I’d translate it as “can only be done” but that doesn’t really matter. What matters is the idea. You’ll see this “gehen” a LOT in German :).
– Geht nicht.
This for example means “Doesn’t work.”
Hi Emanuel, thank you for the wonderful blog. It may even inspire me to write something in german some day. BTW I have almost written “It may even inspire me someday something in german to write“:)
Could you explain why “snap at someone” is NOT one of the meanings of “angehen” please (see one of the quiz questions)?
Hahaha, German sentence structure creeping in slowly :D.
That “snapping” was a mistake on my end actually. I forgot to mark it in the quizz as a correct answer. It’s fixed now. Sorry for the confusion (and for ruining your score :)
You came up with a nice example at the end. I think I got the meaning. So, does it go like this?
Was den angehenden (soon to be/emerging) Präsidenten angeht (as far … is concerned), so hoffe ich, dass er die Dinge, die in unserem Land nicht angehen (don’t work), schnell und konsequent angeht (make them work), auch wenn ihn seine Gegner und die Presse dafür scharf angehen.
(even if his opponents and the press attack/go after him because of that)
BTW, German is famous for long and convoluted sentences (like the above), which are mostly frowned upon in English. Is it still like this, or is it changing now in Germany to simpler sentences?
Almost perfect!
“konsequent angeht” would be closer to “tackle”. The “making work” is a result of that.
But yeah, you pretty much got it :)
As for the sentence, this is normal TV news level, I’d say. Not everyone can say that on the fly without speaker training, but good debaters can and all people starting university should (in my early millenial opinion) be able to write something like that.
But German did get more simple over the centuries. Take a look at Kant or other philosophers. I cannot read their stuff without making schematics for each sentence.
Thanks, and yes, I can see it now: “tackle/ deal with”
A little side note… as much as I like English, I HATE newspaper English.
German sentences might be long, but English sentences lack verbs because of all the gerunds and nounified verbs. It feels really stiff to me.
here’s an example I made up:
“Quetionable medical advice rampant in briefings”
It feels like walking through dry steppe looking for water :D
Your example could be a title, but it is not a sentence, because it does not have a verb.
Admittedly, sometimes it is difficult to find the verb, and in that case, there is something wrong with the sentence, and it should be rewritten.
You are correct that many journalists write quite complex sentences. I guess I meant that general advice here is that if one can split a sentence into two in an easy way, then it should be done. So, I’ve looked at your sentence again, and now it does not look as complex as it did before, and I don’t see an easy way to split it. I’m sure my perception is different depending on the language.
” if one can split a sentence into two in an easy way, then it should be done”… I totally agree.
And that’s actually good advice for learners, too.
My expecience is that , as soon as people reach B1 or B2, they feel compelled to make long complex sentences because it’s german and it NEVER works :). Simple and easy is the best. Complex sentences will come by themselves, once you have to phrase a complex thought.
Did you mean to provide the German version in this section:
• How good a kisser are you?”
“None of your business.”
“Sadly.”
• “What was that look?!”
“Sir?”
“Oh you know what I mean…don’t you EVER look at me like that again just because I take decaff, you hear me young man?!!”
“Sorry Sir?”
• “Quite a project.”
“Let’s do this man, today’s the day.”
Ha.. I had to re-read that to realize what’s going on.
The idea was to introduce the three meanings without translations first, that’s why they’re missing.
BUt this article is among the oldest and REALLY needs a do-over. I am doing do-overs at the moment and I’ll add this one high up on the list. It’s really confusing to read and I can make it much better now :)
how about just writing what you mean instead of all the fluffy bullshit around it?
Well, I admit it gets out of hand at times. But many people like it and I enjoy writing that way. I’m not interested in writing dry, concise articles.
Hello Emanuel,
I would like to ask in terms of problem-hadling-ness, are “angehen” and “umgehen” exchangeable?
Thanks!
Not really.
– ein Problem angehen
This is about tackling a problem (with the goal of solving it)
– mit einem Problem umgehen
This is about handling it in sense of coping. The problem is there, you’re there, you cope, but you don’t solve it.
I think “umgehen” is actually worth a post, even though I talked about it in my article on “um-“
Thanks a lot!
Actually, you already did. There is a post about “gehen um” where you discussed “gehen um”, separable and inseparable “umgehen”. That’s why I’m a little confused after reading these two articles.
Oh even better :). I think this is the first time that I forget an article I’ve written.
:) Vielen Dank.
Ich habe irgendwo gesehen diese zwei Saetze; Ich darf keinen Ski laufen. Ich moechte nicht Geschirr Spuelen.
Sind diese Saetze richtig?
Der erste nicht wirklich. Allerdings sagen Leute das umgangssprachlich. Der zweite ist richtig und sogar besser als
– Ich möchte kein Geschirr spülen.
Das Verb ist hier “Geschirr spülen”. Es ist wie eine Einheit.
Ich mache sehr viel Spass wahrend Lernens in dieser Website. Mein Deutsch ist nicht gut aber ich habe versucht in Deutsch etwas zu schreiben. Iich habe grosse zweifel zwischen Verbrauch von “Nicht und Kein”. Ich hoffe dass Sie mir helfen konnten. Vielen Vielen Dank fur solche tolle Website. :)
Freut mich, dass es dir so gefällt. Über “nicht” und “Kein” will ich auch noch einen Artikel schreiben aber die Kurzversion ist:
Wenn man “ein” benutzen kann, dann benutzt man auch “kein”…
– Ich bin müde… no “ein”, hence “nicht”
– Ich bin nicht müde.
– Ich habe ein Buch…. this has “ein” so we need “kein”
– Ich habe kein Buch.
There are a few special cases of course but that would be too much to get into right now.
2 kleine Korrekturen:
– Ich mache viel Spaß…
man sagt
– Ich habe viel Spaß (I have a lot of fun).. oder
– Es macht mir viel Spaß (It’s a lot of fun for me)…
und dann … “der Verbrauch” ist “use” im Sinne von “consumption”. “Use” im Sinne von “using” is “der Gebrauch”
– Vielleicht können sie mir helfen (nicht mich)
Hoffe das hilft ein bisschen :)
Concerning the concern meaning of angehen, it may just be in the Appalachian dialect of USA English, but we would quite naturally say “As far as the weather goes, it was great, …”. In fact, among the West Virginia Hillbillies with whom I grew up, it would be rare to say “As far as the weather was concerned” (it might result in nasty comments about highfalutin language, and a resulting fist fight). So, this usage of angehen feels very natural to me, and gets rid of the conflation with betreffen.
As a general case, I am finding many of your examples of how German might translate literally into English “but no one would ever say that” to be things that people DO say (or DID say). Again, it is the Appalachian dialect coming into play. It is based on 17th century English, so is a LITTLE closer to the shared roots with German. I grew up hearing the older generation (I´m an old man myself) say things like “Reach me the salt.” to mean “Hand me the salt.” Much closer to some usages of “reichen” than is today´s “High Americanish”.
Off topic, how the heck would I say “hillbilly” in German? A German friend says “Hinterwäldler”, but that could include flatlanders (he is Hessian so has no concept of our special kind of mountain red neck pride). Maybe I should ask a Bavarian.
Hmm… correct me if I’m wrong but I always thought a hillbilly was specific to a region. Would you use the term for people from the Rocky Mountains, even if they match the stereotype only half? Or a person from some mountains in Great Britain sporting a thick British accent?
As you said, “Hinterwäldler” is super general so it would work for all of that but I think “Hillbilly” shouldn’t/can’t be translated. It’s like “Quakers” or “Whigs” (that very old political party of the US). It’s a name for a thing that only exists in the US and so there isn’t a translation because German doesn’t have it, so it doesn’t have a word for it.
Thanks for the insights into the Appalachian dialect by the way. I once hike the Appalachians trail… for like two hours :) (I did managed to be face to face with a bear and her cubs on that hike though)…. and as short as it was I fell in love with the region. So beautiful. So I hope I get to go back some day and spend more time there and see if I can pick up these old connections to German.
Thank you 4 solving the mystery of translating phrases with “angehen” in them! It had always been an “Arschweh”(lol) for me. Just to make sure I fully understand the different meanings of the word, I’m posting the translation of that last German paragraph here:
“As far as the soon to be president is concerned, I do hope that he will deal with the unacceptable things in our country fast and consistently. Even if it ….(Ok, I can’t, I just can’t decode this part) ….with his opponents and the press.”
That’s the attacking one… my attempt would be
– even if his opponents and the press were to give him heavy fire.
but that’s not native speaker proved :)
I can’t tell you how much you’ve helped develop my German, I mean I go to class everyday but I tend to learn more from your blog and everyone in my class already sees me as the Bright one but it’s all down to you. Keep up the good work and thank you.
I’m really happy to hear that this works so well for you. Vielen Dank! And it supports my opinion that language classes often lack some structure. Thinking back to my calsses I recall me thinking “Where are we? Why are we talking about this? Is that the complete picture? Wait, haven’t we talked about that weeks ago?” and also, stuff that should come early on comes way too late in favor of … vegetable names. But I’m starting to ramble :). Ich wünsch’ dir weiter viel Spaß und Erfolg, hier und im Unterricht
And btw, an absolutely fantastic blog! Thank you so much!
Does angehen in the sense of “as far as … concerned” overlaps with “von … her”? I mean “Was das Wetter angeht” sounds very much like “Vom Wetter her”. But is it just me stupid?
No, you’re totally right, there is an overlap but they’re not interchangeable at all times. “Was … angeht” can be used for plans, “von… her” can’t. “Von … her” is about the perspective you take. You go somewhere, stand there and look toward the matter at hand. “Angehen” is about what goes toward a certain matter and this is much broader. “Von … her” is always about a judgement or opinion about something…. “was … angeht” can introduce everything that is related to that.
– Was das Projekt angeht, müssen wir darüber nachdenken…
– Vom Projekt her….(doesn’t really work)
Hope that helps :)
Hey! Thank you so much, this is a truly awesome blog (and really entertaining)! I just had a quick question about one of your examples above:
“Oh ja… als ich mich vorhin beim Essen zu ihr gesetzt hab’, um ein bisschen Small Talk zu machen, ist sie mich angegangen…”
I know gehen and various other verbs of motion take ‘sein’ in compound past tenses when they’re intransitive but I thought they should take ‘haben’ when they become transitive and take on an accusative object, so I was confused that you wrote “ist sie mich angegangen” and not “hat sie mich angegangen”. I think I might have misunderstood some fundamental rule here so it would be great if you could explain what’s happening in that sentence.
Vielen Dank!! :)
Nice question.. so I did a quick Google search for “Sie ist mich angegangen” and “Sie hat mich angegangen” and it was 50 vs 4 results.
In fact, to me both versions work and I am sure I have heard it said either way. It is similar for the “angehen” as in “to concern”
Das hat mich nichts angegangen…
Das ist mich nichts angegangen…
I wouldn’t know what to choose but in that case people say “ging” anyway so crisis averted :).
The rule with transitive-intransitive is not super strict and there are exceptions… especially when you look at the verbs with a very very closely linked object.
Ich bin Fahrrad/Auto gefahren
I think to people who’s native language is English, this is pure transitive but to me it is kind of not because the object is part of the verb. Anyway…
Ich bin einen Marathon gelaufen…
Ich habe einen Marathon gelaufen…
Both are possible (600.000 results for “bin”, 1.200 000 for “habe”).
What matters ultimately is what’s the focus… is it YOUR travelling the distance or is it the “SIDE EFFECT” of your travelling the distance. The emphasis is different.And the whole transtitive vs. intransitive thing is just a side effect of that. Usually the focus is not on your travels if there is a direct object.
Ich habe meinen Bruder nach München gefahren.
But then, at other times it is
Ich bin Fahrrad gefahren.
And it doesn’t even have to be a “phrasal verb”
Ich bin den Wagen immer gerne gefahren.
You can find that, too.
So… transitive – intransitive is a guideline but it is not the underlying rule as in that a flip switches in the brain from “sein” to “haben”… the focus is what matters.
And then, as soon as the use gets abstract… well… people don’t really know and so often you’ll find either version. Hope that makes sense :)
That makes a lot of sense actually, it’s so useful to have it set out in that way. Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a detailed reply, I really appreciate it!! :D
Nescience, lol. New word for me.
As I’m a caveman, I prefer “ignorance” in that sentence.
Haha… I just took this from the dictionary. Don’t even know how to pronounce it :). There is a German word “Ignoranz” but that is way more negative than the English one…. like.. the German one will never just mean “not knowing”… it is always has this “not even trying to know better” or just “ignoring the obvious facts”. In fact it is always negative… not even so much as close to neutral, ever. And I guess that’s why I was kind of … meeehhh… because “Unwissenheit” is more like this innocent naiveté :)
Ah. Yeah, ignorant can be used an insult, certainly, but doesn’t have to be.
I would use “willful ignorance” for the bad German meaning.
That makes me think… if someone says
This was an ignorant rant.
or something similar, what mneaning comes to mind to a native Speaker of English… the neutral one or the negative one. Vielen Dank :)
Maybe a little more nuanced meaning than just neutral or negative. I would say there’s an implication of an insult there, though it’s not necessarily an insult in and of itself.
Either way, I generally wouldn’t think too highly of someone whom I leveled that comment against.
It doesn’t lean either way at all to me as a native englishman really, only from the context could you grasp whether it was the so named ‘negative’ meaning or not. I guess if you had to push me as to which way the word without context leans, i would say the non negative. Random rant/boring dribbling of useless information over. Thanks
The detailed explanation on how to use the words in the right context is brilliant! Thx
Vielen Dank für Ihren Unterricht und Anleitung.
Hallo! Noch ne offtopic-Frage!
Es geht um die zweideutige Rolle von “werden” im Konjunktiv II.
“Würden” ist üblicherweise verwendet, um den “reinen” Konjunktiv zu ersetzen, also “würde kommen” anstatt “käme” usw.
“Würden” ist aber gleichzeitig die bloße konjunktivische Form von “werden”.
Die Frage ist dann, ob es üblich ist, diese konjunktivische Form “allein” zu gebrauchen. Beispiel: “In diesem Fall würde ich krank” oder “…würde ich krank werden”; “… diese Lebensmittel würden dann gekauft” oder “… würden dann gekauft werden”?
Ich weiß, dass rein theoretisch beides richtig ist, aber was ist gebräuchlich?
Super Frage !!… Aber ich kann das nur rein subjektiv beantworten. Es ist echt schwer, das mittels Google zu recherchieren.
Also… meiner Ansicht nach ist “würde werden” im gesprochenen Deutsch etwas häufiger anzutreffen…
Ich glaube, je banaler die Aussage ist, desto eher sieht man “würde werden”, da das andere etwas zu edel klingt :).
Im geschreibenen Deutsch ist (wohl) das reine würde besser, allerdings keineswegs immer. Es klingt teilweise etwas abgehakt, so als fehlte was. Mehr kann ich leider auch nicht sagen und jemand anders hat vielleicht eine andere Meinung. Aber es ist definitiv nicht so, dass eins klar besser oder häufiger ist.
Danke! Ich hab mich gewundert, weil “würde werden” zu “komplex” aussieht, und die Deutschen scheinen immer ihre Sprechweisen vereinfachen zu wollen (das Präsens anstatt des “schwierigeren” Futurs, usw.).
PS: “wird* verwendet”. Englisch beeinflusst immer noch mein Deutsch ;)
Hallo Immanuel,
Vielen Dank für die tolle Website. Ich kann diese Lektionen um andere zu drucken. Der Grund, warum, den ich Frage, ist, dass ich im mittleren Westen der Vereinigten Staaten lebe und Amish-Gemeinden in unserer Gegend gibt. Sie sprechen, was sie als “Pennsylvania Dutch” bezeichnen. Es ist eigentlich ein deutscher Dialekt, aber ihre Sprache stirbt langsam aus. Ich versuche zu helfen, es am Leben zu halten, indem sie Bücher und Lehren. Sie nennen auch ihre Sprache “Plattdeutsch”. Nur sehr wenige dieser Menschen verwenden Computer. die meisten verwenden keine Elektrizität. Hier sind einige Links zu was ich meine. Auch heute ist der 38. Jahrestag des Untergangs der Edmund Fitzgerald. Das könnte Sie auch interessieren. Der Unfall ereignete sich etwa 600 km von hier.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_dutch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vST6hVRj2A
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish
Danke für die lieben Worte :).
“Plattdeutsch” gibt es in Deutschland auch…. an der Küste der Nordsee. Und für mich ist es fast unverständlich. Es ist kein Dialekt mehr sondern wie eine andere Sprache. Ich weiß allerdings nicht ob Amisch-Platt und Nordsee-Platt etwas gemein haben. Dazu kenne ich mich zu wenig aus…
Hier ist ein Link zu einem Plattdeutsch-Deutsch Wörterbuch… vielleicht hilft das ja bei Ihrer Arbeit :)
http://www.deutsch-plattdeutsch.de/wergebnis.php
http://www.plattmaster.de/
http://www.radiobremen.de/bremenvier/programm/themen/platt1672.html
PA Platt ist egtl ziemlich verständlich, sogar ich kann das lesen.
http://hiwwewiedriwwe.wordpress.com/
Okay, that is way more readable than I expected… and you know what’s funny… it feels like Bavarian/Southern German dialect to me :)… not all of it but there are many features of that.. for instance saying “un” instead of “und” and saying “heere” instead of “hören”.
Here’s an example for North Sea Platt
http://www.jantorf.de/espresso/beispiele_plattdeutsch.html
I can also read that but I find it more difficult and some words I would have not figured out without the translation… like… “loten” means “lassen”. Oh… I just realized, I was writing in English. Tut mir leid. Das sollte nicht sagen, dass Ihr Deutsch nicht gut ist. Es war einfach Kommentargewohnheit :)
PA Dutch basiert auf den süddeutschen Dialekten. Zudem gibt es auch zwei verschiedene Schreibweisen: eine basiert auf der englischen, die andere auf der deutschen “Rechtschreibung”.